Abstract in another language

Endophytic fungal communities in leaves of deciduous trees usually undergopronounced seasonal changes. We hypothesized that such compositional shifts arepredominantly caused by annuality of the leaves and therefore less pronounced infungi colonizing the perennial substrates bark and corticolous lichens. To test thishypothesis, thalli of the foliose lichen-forming fungal species Xanthoria parietina andPhysconia distorta, along with the adjacent bark, were sampled during spring andautumn at two sides of a single tree in southern Germany. Analysis of clone libraries byrestriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) revealed 588 singleton and 221 nonsingletonRFLP types of non-lichenized fungi. The communities differed significantlybetween host lichen species. Season and exposure had only a significant impact whenthe two factors were combined in the analysis. Accordingly, bark- and/or the lichenassociatedfungal communities change throughout the year's course, a finding thatrejects the initial hypothesis. This survey revealed valuable information for futurebroad-based studies, by indicating that (i) an relatively high diversity of non-lichenizedfungi is associated with corticolous lichen thalli and the adjacent bark. Furthermore, thestructure of non-lichenized fungal assemblages associated with corticolous lichencommunities obviously depends at least on the following factors: 'lichen species','exposure', and 'season'.